Imperfections
by KitKatt0430
Summary: When the Legends destroyed the Spear of Destiny, all that energy had to go somewhere. In Central City, Hartley Rathaway wakes up with new powers. The telekinesis turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg.


Summary: When the Legends destroyed the Spear of Destiny, all that energy had to go somewhere.

In Central City, Hartley Rathaway wakes up with new powers. The telekinesis turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Notes: In which Hartley learns he actually likes his life exactly the way it is, imperfections and all

Content Warnings: Attempted Sexual Assault and Mind Control

_**Imperfections**_

Hartley has weird dreams sometimes.

He's had them since he was a kid. Half remembered dreams, probably influenced by his love of science fiction and comic books heroes and the desperate need to escape the homophobic home where he was being raised. There's a ship, of course, traveling in time and space. A crew of misfits, an artificial intelligence, and some sort of stick of destiny.

The dreams came and went, sometimes repeating the same dreams but with some of the details different, sometimes… new dreams entirely. He can't ever really remember them clearly after waking up, details lost even if the main 'plot' remains.

Sometimes he thinks he even manages to intervene somehow, as though the dream subtly shifted into a lucid dream even though he's never actually present.

It's how he reaches out to shield the handsome rogue, who doesn't really die in the heart of time when it explodes. It's how he convinces the man with powers like Quicksilver that he doesn't need to kill his captive to temporarily take his place. It's how he keeps the new Captain from bleeding out, holding pressure to a wound with hands that don't exist.

These people – these dreams – are important to Hartley, for all that they happen so infrequently.

But it doesn't occur to him, when he dreams of that stick of destiny being shattered, that the dreams have anything to do with the way everything in his room is floating when he jerks awake, panic in his chest, terror pounding in his veins.

The items all clatter to the ground and Hartley has to spend a few more minutes in bed, taking deep calming breaths, before quietly getting up to inspect the damage.

And then he does the only thing he can think of in a crisis. He calls Cisco Ramon.

"I think I'm manifesting new powers," he says when Cisco answers with a complaint about it being too fucking early.

There's a long pause. "What kind of powers?"

"Telekinesis? I woke up from a nightmare and things were floating in my room."

"Right, okay. That's… I can help you figure it out, if that's what you're calling for?" Cisco sounds very awake now, excitement flickering at the edges of his tone. But mostly he sounds calm and curious and that's what Hartley needs to relieve the last bit of pressure in his chest that made it hard to breathe.

"Yes. Though… at a decent hour of the day, I guess. Sorry for waking you up, I just kind of..."

"Freaked out?" Cisco finishes for him.

"Yeah." Hartley let out a shaky breath. "Thanks for answering."

* * *

So Hartley starts visiting STAR Labs more often, getting Cisco's help in figuring out how his powers work. Which is how he learns that Barry Allen isn't on a well deserved vacation after all. He's trapped in the Speed Force. And Caitlin has gone on a journey of self-discovery, or something like that, to learn how to coexist with her super-powered alter ego.

Cisco's alone at STAR Labs every day, obsessing over building a device to bring his best friend back. So Hartley starts pitching in with other things around the lab. Like getting the bills paid on time so that the electricity doesn't go off. Beefing up security so that people can't just waltz in anymore. Unless they're a speedster, Hartley doesn't know how to protect against that without nulling everyone else's powers too and he doubts Cisco'd appreciate having his powers dampened without permission.

Hartley also gets to meet Cisco's girlfriend, whom he's definitely not jealous of. (That was not how he wanted to figure out he had a crush on Cisco, desperately biting down on the impulse to be an asshole, to make Cynthia of Earth-19 want to leave…) She helps him program the security system to not only use bio-locks, but to check a person's vibrational frequency. So Hartley could just walk into the building whenever he wanted, but an alternate universe version of him would be denied at the door. (Unless he also had telekinesis and bashed the door in with, like, a nearby bench or bike rack or whatever.)

Which is when Hartley realizes that he's spending more time at STAR Labs helping Cisco and acting as tech support when Vibe and Kid Flash are in the field than he is at his own job. So he quits Mercury Labs and goes back to STAR Labs full time.

"I'm… I'm actually really glad to have you around, Hartley. So, yes, if you want to work here again, I'd be glad to set that up for you." Cisco assures him and Hartley definitely doesn't get butterflies in his chest over Cisco's bright smile.

* * *

The next power to manifest is an accident. Cisco calls it a happy accident because it saves Hartley from something awful.

Hartley does not call it a happy accident or anything good at all because these powers? They're terrible, they're invasive, they're…

He was at a bar with Cisco and Cynthia. Goes to order their next round of drinks and flirts a little with the cute guy he winds up standing next to. Only the guy gives off red flags when he flirts back, so Hartley's relieved to cut that off and head back to the table after placing his order and gesturing to where the beers should go.

That should've been the end of it, but Hartley went to leave early since it was getting loud. Only Mr. Red Flag apparently followed Hartley out of the bar, intent on assaulting him in the parking lot.

"Stop," Hartley demands, panicked, power coursing through him.

He thought maybe his telekinesis was responding when the man stopped as commanded, but the suddenly glassy eyed stare told a different story.

"Why did you attack me?" Hartley demanded, voice shaking.

The response is horrifying. The man had been preying upon men and women at several bars. Drugging them sometimes, but that didn't get him the fear he liked best.

"You're going to turn yourself into the police. Give them whatever evidence they need to convict you," Hartley instructs his attacker.

The man turns and marches off to do exactly that.

Mind control, Hartley realizes as he sinks to the ground. He feels sick, like he might throw up. (He does throw up.)

He texts Cisco to come outside. He tells the two vibers what happened, signing his words instead of speaking – thank god Cisco learned ASL, even if his grammar is still shit – because he's too afraid to take the chance that he might…

Mind control is just a fancy term for mind rape, as far as Hartley's concerned. The idea of doing that to people he likes? No. Just… no.

This isn't a good thing. Hartley wants to rip out his powers and throw them away.

* * *

Joe tells him about the rapist who turned himself in. Apparently whatever Hartley did to make him docile and compliant wore off after a few hours, but by then he'd confessed to nearly a dozen assaults. Like Hartley's supposed to feel better about using his power on a bad person, as though that somehow makes it okay.

Hartley convinces Team Flash to watch the episode of Haven where the little girl can make anyone do what she tells them. He's fairly certain they get the point he's making when she tells a kidnapper 'I hate your guts' and the man proceeds to try to remove his own guts because he hates them now. (The little girl, hopefully, never realizes what happened to that man. It's hard enough on her when Duke gets hurt 'playing pirates'.)

If Hartley's voice can have that affect on people, then the answer, as far as he's concerned, is that he shouldn't talk anymore. Not with his voice, anyway. Sign language works just fine.

Cisco's answer is, of course, the suppression cuffs. Which is how they learn that the cuffs don't work on Hartley. Cuffs on, fired up and glowing brightly, and Hartley's telekinesis still works just fine. Presumably the mind control works too and Hartley might've thrown the cuffs across the room in a fit of frustration that turned into tears as self pity set back in.

It's Iris who knocks sense back into Hartley. She drags him along as she investigates some underground drug scene and because of Murphy's law kicking in they wind up about to be drugged against their will.

Hartley feels the power bubbling up to stop the drug dealers in their tracks… to make them do his will and he's not even fucking speaking… and he redirects it into telekinesis. Flings their would be attackers away and runs for safety, breathing hard and then suddenly he's looking at Iris and laughing with relief. So is she. They've got her story and Hartley has the confidence that he can control his abilities without hurting anyone and… he's also got a friend that he didn't before.

Which is good, because he was getting way too attached to Cisco and his friendship with Cynthia was made uncomfortable with how jealous of her being with Cisco he felt. Being friends with Iris is calming in just the way he needed. Even if he does think she takes way too many risks with her life.

"I take fewer risks when I'm alone. But with you or Cisco or… or Barry around, I can afford to take greater risks, knowing I have someone I can trust to catch me if I fall," she tells him.

* * *

Hartley dreams about a samurai robot. But the dream is wrong. Samurai are all about honor and nobility. They aren't spies or charlatans, those were the ninjas, dressed as peasants and blending in to the background.

So Hartley changes the dream and sees the man behind the robot. Sees the illness corrupting his brain, like a virus rewriting a computer's OS. Looks back further, sees the time traveler, the speedster, the fake friend… sees the hand that he accidentally played in a good man's downfall and… pushes, just a little.

Its suddenly the night the accelerator exploded. That night haunts Hartley's dreams a lot, so it shouldn't surprise him to see it, but it does. The man in his dream, DeVoe – a professor, a good man who occasionally has terrible thoughts but… he controls those thoughts, not the other way around, uses the ugliness inside him as an inspiration to make the world more beautiful. DeVoe goes to put on the Thinking Cap and Hartley knows where that leads. Hell paved with good intentions until nothing of the good man is left.

_No, no, no… it's not ready, yet. You're missing something. Stop, please, stop…_

DeVoe puts down the Thinking Cap. Regards it for a long moment and then stows it away. He's missing something important and until he knows what it is, he probably shouldn't test it on himself anymore.

In the distance, the accelerator explodes. But the dark energy emitted into the storm passes by the DeVoe household with nary a disturbance.

* * *

DeVoe is a real person, Hartley is shocked to learn. More shocking is that the Thinking Cap project is still on DeVoe's to do list, once he's unlocked some more of the mysteries surrounding how the human brain works.

"If I'd tried it that night, I'd have probably fried my brain. Gave me a real wake up call. I still believe this project could revolutionize the world, but I've come to worry about what would happen to someone who used it who was brilliant yet not compassionate." DeVoe smiled pleasantly at Hartley. "Who was it who told you about this project, anyway, Dr. Rathaway?"

"Harrison told me about it," Hartley replied, numbly. If his dream about DeVoe was this accurate so far, then it wouldn't hurt to assume the part about Eobard Thawne was true too. "He was my mentor at the time and I was curious to find out if anything had come of the projects he'd been interested in before he..." Hartley trailed off, letting DeVoe fill in for himself whether Hartley was referencing Well's fall from grace after the accelerator failed or the man's supposed death over a year later.

Walking away from the university, Hartley wondered how the hell he was supposed to explain what was going on with himself without sounding… nuts.

* * *

"The last time I was this secretive, I was hiding my powers and pretending that if I ignored the vibes then they'd go away," Cisco said, hopping up on the lab table next to Hartley. "So what are you being secretive for? Are you in contact with Caitlin? Got a hot boyfriend you're afraid your weird coworkers will scare off? New power manifestation?"

"You're obnoxious," Hartley muttered and then sighed. Might as well give it up. "Weird new power manifestation… maybe. Probably." And then he explains about DeVoe and the dream he had…

Which is when it occurs to him that the sensation of lucid dreaming inside a dream where he wasn't actually present… isn't exactly a new phenomenon.

* * *

Gideon helps Hartley figure out what his dreams were about. It's easy to stay out of everyone else's way while he's sneaking off to meet up with the AI, because Barry's back now. Barry's also unstable, mostly trapped in his own head and unable to truly perceive reality. Which is dangerous enough in a speedster without exposing him to someone who once tried to kill him, even if that didn't happen in this timeline.

So Hartley spends hours with Gideon, describing his dreams about the ship and the time travelers. The fight against the immortal who stole other people's souls for his own gain. The shadowy organization trying to use time for their own benefit. The stick of destiny, broken in three pieces and collected, only to be shattered for good.

Gideon's answer at the end of it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise. The Legends.

* * *

"So what do you want, a thank you?" Rory drawls, disbelieving and upset.

"No. Because you're not grateful and I'm pissed off that your Captain fucked me over destroying the Spear of Destiny, because that's the most likely source of my powers. All that energy had to go somewhere and I got to be the unlucky son of a bitch who got them." Hartley's back to being estranged from his parents, so he doesn't feel bad about referring to his own mother so rudely at the moment. He hands Mick Rory a page ripped out of a notebook. Spacial and temporal coordinates are there, written in a shorthand only a Time Master, or one of their bounty hunter lackeys, would recognize. "You'll find Snart – the real Snart – there. He's got some shiny new powers of his own, doesn't quite know how to tell the past from the present from the future yet. You should go bring him home."

Mick's staring at him, painful hope in his eyes as he takes the piece of paper. "You swear."

"I swear. He's there."

* * *

The thing about getting the powers of the Spear of Destiny, Hartley begins to realize, is that he could do anything with them he wants. Rewrite time and space and destiny. Command the universe to bend to his will.

He could probably fix his own hearing. His eyesight.

Hartley fiddles with his glasses, staring fuzzily into a mirror. He can't really see his reflection like this, just a blur that resembles himself vaguely enough. He wonders why he never bothered to get his eyes fixed with surgery.

Maybe its because he's okay with his life not being perfect. Imperfect eyesight, imperfect hearing… in love with a man who'll probably never love him back and best friends with a woman who throws herself into danger because she trusts that the people she cares about will always have her back.

He smiles to himself and puts on his glasses and goes into work. He'll call Iris in the afternoon and see if she needs some time away from Barry to spend with her best friend. Maybe Caitlin, newly back on the team and clearly hiding something to do with her frosty alter ego (again), would like to join them.


End file.
